Classic Games: Caveman Ugh-lympics

CaveMan Ugh-lympics

The 2008 Olympic Games are here. Here's a look back at one of the Olympic spoof games from the Stone Age of the PC - Caveman Ugh-lympics. This old DOS game allowed you to participate it games older than the Olympics themselves.

Caveman Ugh-lympics is a DOS-based game from Electronic Arts. It debuted in 1988. Here's the front of the box.

Here's a image from the back of the box. It describes all of the different games included in the Olympics.

My game came with 5 1/4" low density floppies. You could send away for 3 1/2" floppy disks.

The game runs on all PC compatibles and there was also a Commodore 64 version. As you can see the system requirements are negligible today.

The game doesn't support VGA directly. The best graphics resolution you can get is EGA. As you can see, there's also special support for the graphics card in the Tandy 1000 which allowed EGA resolution and colors with out an 'expensive' card or monitor.

The game comes with lots of extras.

Information from the front cover.

The box lists a little history of the company and the game.

Here's your form to upgrade to 3.5" disks!

What would a computer game be without upsells for other things to buy?

Computer games used to include lots of little extras. This was a little 'newspaper' that featured stories from the Stone Age.

A lot of creativity was put into the newspaper. A nice subtle addition to the game.

Terrorism was even a concern 35,000 years ago

The newspaper wasn't just one sided. There was a complete back page with want-ads and obituaries.

Evidence this is Stone Age game:

360k 5 1/4" floppy disks. 4 of them.

Here's the manual.

No expense was spared in the manual either. The caveman theme continues throughout. There are also instructions for the Commodore 64.

The game wasn't copy protected nor was there a key-disk. You had to get information from inside of the manual.

The opening screen from Caveman Ugh-lympics. Just starting off with a modern-day torch runner.

Squish!

Neanderthals beat Homo Sapiens!

There's no copy protection. Just answer this question from the manual.

No mouse control. You can use a keyboard or a joystick. That's it.

Here you set the video mode for the game. No autodection here!

Select the player you want by bopping him over the head.

The next few screens show the details for each player. Each player has his own strengths and weaknesses.

After you select your player, you must enter your own name. You're the official sponsor.

Here's the main menu. You can practice, play the full Olympics, view the Hall Of Fame, and choose a new character.

Here are the different events.

A definitely un-PC game: Mate Toss. Take your mate swing them around by the hair and let fly!

The Sabertooth Tiger Race. The point here is not to out run the tiger. All you have to do is outrun your competitor.

There's no second place in this game. Just a winner and supper.

And the loser is:

The Dinosaur Race

Here you're riding the dinosaur to victory. Just club it over the head to make it run. Don't tell PETA.

CaveMan Ugh-lympics

The 2008 Olympic Games are here. Here's a look back at one of the Olympic spoof games from the Stone Age of the PC - Caveman Ugh-lympics. This old DOS game allowed you to participate it games older than the Olympics themselves.